Long Term Goals and Short Term Plans

Most of you probably know by now that my mom is planning on running the Baystate Marathon again this year. Last year, she had run it while I had done the half marathon and we both really enjoyed the race (you can catch last year’s recap here!)

After having a not-so-great experience at Delaware, it was kind of a no-brainer for my mom to sign up for this race again. Originally, I was thinking I would go just to spectate and cheer her on.

But then I started getting that itch again…

Originally, I was looking for marathons in January and February. With my work schedule the way it is, I have less travel and more time to train between the end of October and the beginning of March. After that, things are likely to pick up again, making marathon training difficult.

So why do I even want to run another marathon (especially after what happened last time)? In all honesty, it’s because in looking at the long term of what I want in my running, it’s that qualifying time for Boston. For me, that’s a 3:35 or better, which seems scary and fast and very far away. I’m well off that time right now, and I know this will most likely require years of training and more experience with the distance. From everything I’ve read, people don’t run PRs on their first or second marathons. 26.2 miles is a whole different animal from any other race, and it takes time, experience, and a lot of patience to figure out how to run this race right. I know I made some big mistakes in Delaware – I went out too fast, I didn’t fuel at mile 20 when I needed it most, and I finished feeling worse than I have ever felt in a race before. But I’m ready to take all those lessons and give the marathon another shot.

I was discussing all this with my mom, trying to figure out what I should do. The marathons I was considering were all relatively far away and would have required air travel as well as hotels, making them more logistically challenging. Then, she pointed out that I could just run Baystate with her. I’m not sure why this never really occurred to me before, but once she mentioned it, it was suddenly an easy decision.

We are about 10 weeks out, and I’m not starting from scratch, but it definitely doesn’t leave any time to mess around! I am officially back in marathon training mode! Bring on marathon #3!!